The Desert Hot Springs City Council held its regular meeting at the Carl May Center on Tuesday evening, April 2, 2013. Presentations were made by Joe Wallace, managing director of the Coachella Valley iHub and Keystone participants from the Boys and Girls Club in the city.

Mayor Parks presented a “May is Mental Health” proclamation to Carole Schaudt, board chair of Desert Regional Medical Health.

ON behalf of the hoteliers association Jeff and Judy Bowman presented Police Chief Kate Singer with her very own “Spa Zone” sign to hang in her office.

More photos of the event; just click!

Poring through IRS data can uncover some interesting statistics, apparently, as reports show that in the midst of the economic downturn, $80 million in unemployment benefits have been doled out to American millionaire households.

Some 3,200 households reporting an adjusted gross income of over $1 million collected jobless assistance payments averaging $12,600, for an overall record $29.9 million, in 2010. The real question is, of course, how is it even possible for such households to qualify for the benefits?

According to Bloomberg, in a 2011 bid to prevent millionaires from cashing in on unemployment, the House of Representatives included a 100 per cent tax for unemployment benefits for single filers with incomes over $1 million, and married filers with incomes of over $2 million.

That provision was not included in the final bill signed by President Obama, nor was there any other attempt to reconcile unemployment benefits for million-plus earners and taxation on those benefits.

Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, claimed to Bloomberg that overall, the unemployment benefits system is still sound, as 68 per cent of payments went to households earning under $50,000.

And it may come as a relief, Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution points out, that the aggregate number of millionaires who collected in September of 2010, the year unemployment peaked, make up just 0.035 per cent of the 9.2. million Americans on unemployment.

Still, the concept of such high-earning households – and, accordingly, households with greater savings and assets – collecting benefits from a government fund as strained as unemployment insurance might strike some as an issue stinging the ‘99%’ of Americans.

It was not long ago, in 2008, when an emergency unemployment measure was enacted to cope with the long-term jobless – that meaning Americans who had been unemployed for at least 26 weeks. As Bloomberg points out, that program was amended some 11 times, with many jobless Americans collecting for as many as 99 weeks.

So, should there be a measure enacted to prevent the country’s highest earners from taking advantage of the unemployment insurance system? States distribute these funds based on payroll taxes, so in that technical sense even a millionaire household is as entitled to payments as any other American household.

But the issue many critics of the current unemployment system point to is the program’s inability to account for other criteria, such as household savings, and perhaps even existing household debt prior to a loss of employment. An equitable, and more importantly sustainable financial net should be able to discern real need.

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Yucca Valley, CA – The Yucca Valley Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint on April 12, 2013 between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. at an undisclosed location.  DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.

Officers will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint and looking for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment.  Officers will also check drivers for proper licensing and will strive to delay motorists only momentarily. Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

In 2010, over 10,000 people were killed nationally in motor vehicle traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08% or higher. In California, this deadly crime led to 791 deaths because someone failed to designate a sober driver. “Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed several lives and resulted in serious injury crashes harming many of our friends and neighbors,” said Sergeant Rick Collins.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while also yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent.  Checkpoints are placed in locations that have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence and provide the greatest safety for officers and the public.

“Deaths from drunk and drug-impaired driving are going down in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).  “But that still means that hundreds of our friends, family and co-workers are killed each year, along with tens of thousands who are seriously injured. We must all continue to work together to bring an end to these tragedies.  Report Drunk Drivers. Call 9-1-1.” 

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

John McMahon, Sheriff-Coroner

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept.

Richard Boswell, Captain

Morongo Basin Station